Kara Goucher will not be a contender for the United States Olympic team as the World bronze medalist won’t compete at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials. 

After a disappointing fourth-place finish at the Olympic Marathon Trials in February, Goucher set her sights on making the team in the 10K and resumed training in her native Boulder, Colorado.

Watch her emotional post-Trials interview below:



But the two-time Olympian has recently changed her focus to marathon training.

“There was time to qualify (the cutoff is June 26), but I just felt like I was pushing too hard,” Goucher wrote to Competitor’s Michael Sandrock over email. “After the marathon I felt great, but a month later I started to feel like I wasn’t recovering as well as I had hoped.”

“It is very disappointing for sure,” added Goucher, “but I enjoyed training for L.A. so much that I am really excited to do another marathon.”

She did not mention a specific race but Sandrock speculates that she will either run the Berlin Marathon, a fast course that she has never attempted, or the New York City Marathon, the same event where she placed third in her debut at the distance in 2008. 

“My goal now is to build up over the summer for a fall marathon,” Goucher said. “In better conditions, I think I can scare my PR. I’m really looking forward to it.”